The Gnome Tree

 

The sun lazily climbs higher each day. With each stretch of the sun’s rays come longer days and shorter nights until they reach the Summer Solstice on June 21^st. That day is the longest amount of daylight and the shortest amount of night. This is also known as the first day of summer and in some cultures, it is known as Midsummer. I always have found it strange that the days begin to grow shorter after the Solstice. Oh, don’t be alarmed…not right away! It does take a few of those long lazy days to begin to shorten our daylight!

The Solstice is one of my favorite days and it does not go unnoticed. I do plan for it. I have spent the Solstice in Ireland, in Scotland, and many years on Ocracoke Island with friends. This year the Solstice will be celebrated with a neighborhood party with an array of food and music by our favorite neighborhood band! Faith will get to be the faerie princess this year. It is her turn to wear the crown and reign over all the events. (Maybe…she is actually a tomboy and might not wear the crown!)

This year the Solstice will be met with another addition to my yard and to my celebrations. My backyard now is home to the best gnome house in town. It is a work in progress so it won’t be quite finished by the Solstice, but pretty close.

The birth of the gnome tree actually started four years ago when my spectacular Norway maple tree began to show signs of distress. I noticed a few of the branches were dying so I made a call to Sevits Tree Service. They promptly came out and decided we should take out the dead branches in hopes the tree could be saved. This happened twice. Little by little the limbs were taken off, and little by little the tree could not be saved. Late last summer I called Sevits and told them the tree was almost gone and it was time. I was, of course, crying all the while. Jenny nicely asked, “Can you think of anything that would make you happy with the tree gone?” I was quick to answer, “Nothing.”

I have loved that tree. It was the crowning jewel of my yard. It was my Pollyanna tree. It was a tree for shade and birds and stark beauty in the winter. Jenny waited for me to think about it. “Well,” I said, “I love the night sky, and I will have a better view.” Okay, I thought, that is a start, but what else? “ I have always thought it would be fun to have my own gnome tree!” And there it was. The idea of the gnome tree was born.

By this past spring I knew the tree was completely gone. The bark began to shred, and I found it in pieces on the ground each morning. Last winter’s ice storm put the cutting of my tree on hold until they were caught up, and then two weeks ago, I got the call. The guys were coming to take down the tree. The kids were all here so we set up our chairs so we could watch the guys work. Watching them take down my tree was like watching a well-orchestrated dance. Everyone had a job, and the tree was taken down like clockwork. They cut the tree straight across before they began the angle for the gnome tree, and then it was perfectly cut so the whimsical piece of art could begin.

Little by little we have watched the tree transform into a house for gnomes and faeries, just in time for the Solstice. Gnome trees are not new. They can even be traced back to the Romans in 470 A.D. They are definitely part of history in Ireland or Scotland and began to be popular in the 1970’s in the United States. There is quite a distinction between gnomes and faeries and elves and banshees! All of those stories will wait for another time!

You might want to drive around town and see if you or your kiddos can find my gnome tree! What a great adventure that might be. As for me, it is now part of my Solstice celebration. Perhaps the faeries will leave trinkets for all of us outside of the tree.

“Hand in hand with faerie grace.

Will we sing and bless this place.”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Williams Shakespeare